Huayu: Starting with Xiang Yu, the Hegemon of Western Chu

Chen Mo received the message at 3:37 a.m.

He didn't sleep.

He was reading the History of Ming.

The two words I wrote this afternoon, "Smiling?", lie quietly in a corner of the book.

He had already finished reading the entire ninth chapter of the Annals and had now turned to the latter half of the eighth chapter, starting from the time of Zhu Di's death.

He originally just wanted to figure out whether the "smiling?" statement was valid or not.

As a result, he couldn't stop reading.

This person is quite interesting.

Zhu Zhanji.

He ascended the throne at the age of twenty-seven and died at the age of thirty-six.

He reigned for only ten years, and historical records describe his reign as the "Rule of Renxuan," which, along with his father Zhu Gaochi, is considered to be the best decade or so of the Ming Dynasty.

But the same Zhu Zhanji did three particularly famous things in his life.

The first thing was that the emperor personally led an expedition and captured his uncle Zhu Gaochi. Instead of beheading him, he was put in a bronze vat and roasted alive to death.

The second thing he did was depose his own empress, Hu Shanxiang.

This empress was personally chosen by his grandfather, Zhu Di. She made no mistakes, was virtuous and steady, and Zhu Di liked her. However, Zhu Zhanji deposed her a few years after ascending the throne and replaced her with Lady Sun, whom he had fallen in love with when he was young.

The third thing is cricket fighting; he is the most famous "Cricket Emperor" in history.

He was clearly a good emperor during the reign of Renxuan, but in private he was obsessed with cricket fighting, and local officials would drive ordinary people to their deaths over a single cricket.

Chen Mo closed the book.

He thought for a while.

Then he added three more lines to the paper that read "Laughing?"

"Were you smiling when you were grilling Uncle?"

"Were you smiling when you deposed the empress?"

"Are you smiling while fighting crickets?"

After he finished writing, he stared at those three lines for a long time.

He felt something was there.

It's not an answer, but a direction.

This person's life is not divided into segments.

It's not a three-stage process of "boy-emperor-player".

This person's life was consistent.

He's been like this since he was a teenager.

He kept laughing, but what he was thinking and what he was saying were two different things.

He was laughing when he called Zhu Di "Grandpa" in a spoiled manner; he was laughing when he pushed his uncle into a bronze vat; he was laughing when he drove ordinary people to their deaths by fighting crickets; and he was laughing when he looked at the young crown prince before he died.

This laugh is not an emotion.

This laugh belongs to one person.

Chen Mo stood up and walked onto the balcony.

It was almost four in the morning, and the sky over Yanjing was still dark, but the clouds in the east had already begun to turn a thin layer of blue.

He stood holding onto the balcony railing for a while.

My phone vibrated.

He looked down.

Shen Yu.

"There's a script by Luo Yifeng, about the Xuande Emperor of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Zhanji. He's asking you to audition. You can set the audition time."

Chen Mo looked at the message.

I looked at it for five seconds.

Then he smiled.

The laugh was very soft, but it looked a little strange.

It wasn't his usual polite "okay, thank you" smile, nor was it the knowing smile he gave when reading an interesting passage from the Records of the Grand Historian.

There's something in that smile.

It's somewhat similar to what he wrote when he wrote those three lines on the paper.

He didn't notice it himself.

He typed a message back.

"I'd like to ask a question first."

Shen Yu replied instantly.

"ask."

Who pushed me?

Shen Yu was stunned for a moment.

She knew this problem would arise. But she didn't expect it to come so soon.

She didn't reply immediately.

She thought for ten seconds on her side of the screen.

Then she typed two words.

"Nobody's here."

After sending it, she added another sentence.

"Luo Yifeng watched nine episodes of 'Chu Han' and wanted to audition with you himself."

This is not a lie.

Gao hope did mention it, but that was just to get Luo Yifeng to start reading.

Luo Yifeng himself made the decision after watching nine episodes.

Shen Yu is a woman who never speaks in a straight line, because speaking in a straight line is the easiest way for someone to find fault with her.

But she doesn't lie either, because if a lie is exposed, an agent's reputation is ruined.

She only ever tells part of the truth.

Chen Mo looked at the message.

He didn't ask any more questions.

He typed a message.

"I want to try."

"But I have two conditions."

Shen Yu: "Speak."

Chen Mo: "First, I won't go through a special channel. I'll go through the same process as all the other candidates. I'll go to whichever time slot the assistant director schedules for me."

Shen Yu: "Second?"

Chen Mo: "I need five days."

Shen Yu stared at the two lines on the screen for a moment.

Then she typed a single word.

"it is good."

Chen Mo added another sentence.

"Please convey this message to Director Luo: I want to do a good job in this drama, not to repay any favors or to prove anything, but simply to portray Zhu Zhanji well. If I don't do a good job, I will withdraw voluntarily without him having to say anything."

Shen Yu looked at the message.

She didn't reply immediately.

She put down her phone, stood up, and walked to the office window.

In the early morning in Yanjing, the streetlights cast an orange glow, and occasionally an early morning taxi would drive by on the deserted streets.

She stood there and watched for a while.

Then she said something to herself.

She didn't send that message.

The sentence is:

Director Luo Yifeng, my artist is telling you, he's not here to repay a favor.

She smiled.

Then he returned to the table, picked up his phone, and replied to Chen Mo with a single word.

"it is good."

Then she posted another one.

"The script will be delivered to your house tomorrow morning, so you don't need to come to the office. Use the time to study the script."

Chen Mo looked at the message and put his phone down.

He returned to his desk.

The book "History of Ming" was still lying open on the table.

There were four lines of text written on the paper next to it.

"Laughing?"

"Were you smiling when you were grilling Uncle?"

"Were you smiling when you deposed the empress?"

"Are you smiling while fighting crickets?"

Chen Mo picked up his pen and added another line at the bottom of the four lines.

"When I was playing him..."

He paused here.

I thought about it.

Then I crossed that line out.

It was drawn very cleanly.

He looked up and glanced out the window.

The sky in the east was beginning to brighten.

Five days.

He gave himself five days.

The first day was used to read all the historical materials that Zhu Zhanji could read.

The next day was used to read the script.

On the third day, I started practicing that "smile" in front of the mirror.

The fourth day of training is over.

I went for the audition on the fifth day.

This is the most urgent arrangement he can think of right now.

He closed the notebook.

Then he did something he hadn't done in the past year.

He sent a message to Xu Zhinian.

Don't contact me tomorrow, and don't contact me for the next few days.

Xu Zhinian should still be asleep, but he doesn't silence his phone when he sleeps, so he called back three minutes later.

"???"

"????"

"What's wrong, Lao Chen?"

"Did the accident happen the day after the contract was signed?"

"Should I come and keep you company now???"

Chen Mo looked at the series of question marks and smiled.

Then he replied with two words.

"fine."

He added another sentence.

There is a character.

Xu Zhinian: "What role??"

Chen Mo replied with three words.

"Zhu Zhanji".

There was a silence on Xu Zhinian's end for about five seconds.

Then a voice message came through.

Chen Mo clicked on it.

Xu Zhinian's voice came through the phone, hoarse from just waking up...

"...Zhu Zhanji? The Zhu Zhanji who laughed as he pushed his own uncle into a bronze vat?"

Chen Mo looked at the voice message.

I smiled.

His smile was a little more pronounced than the last one.

Then he closed his phone, drew back the curtains, and let the sunlight stream in.

The four lines of text are still on the paper on the desk.

"Laughing?"

Chen Mo looked down at the four lines of text.

This time he did not write any new words.

He simply reached out, picked up the paper, folded it in half, and tucked it into the pages of the History of Ming as a bookmark.

Then he sat down and began reading from the beginning.

The first page.

"Emperor Xuanzong, whose personal name was Zhanji, was the eldest son of Emperor Renzong."